I recently made the switch from Bloglines to Google reader. I'm definitely happy I did. Google reader does a few things much better than bloglines.
- It has some nice keyboard shortcuts http://www.google.com/help/reader/faq.html#shortcuts , n/p (next previous), o (open close), s (star), m (mark as un /read). The short cuts are simple to use + remember.
- I really like the Feed / Subscription pane. It shows unread blog post in bold, but then it has all the other blog posts there below it. it's really easy to scan though old posts and find one your looking for.
- Speaking of finding stuff you're looking for, it also allows you to star a post. There are a few posts that I go back and re-read. My usual MO is to add a bookmark in firefox to the post. But being able to star an item and come back to it is really a great feature for me.
- Top Recommendations - I really like this, three links that google thinks I'd like. For example I found out No Fluff Just Stuff has a feed - which is an aggregation of all the speakers blog posts it's a really nice feed.
I'm interested to see if bloglines will do a redesign anytime soon. But for me it doesn't compete with Google Readers features and usability
Updated - I just have to add, I've been exploring the rest of the keyboard shortcuts for google reader + they're awesome no more mouse. The commands to browse your subscriptions are great. shift n/p is next previous subscription shift o is open subscription. This is a really nice job of modifying other similar key bindings for a different context... it's very easy to use. Then there are the g? commands. Go somewhere gs goto starred items, gh go home, gu I don't know what the u stands for but it is goto subscription. It brings up an awesome quicksilver esq type completion window, it's pretty and nice to use.
2 comments:
How do you handle the number of posts you get? I only subscribe to about 5 RSS feeds using Google Reader and pretty much whenever I face it there's somewhere between 40-140 items to look thru.
I tend to use the iGoogle gadget on my home page and quickly scroll, starring items I want to read later.
How do you do RSS management?
I don't get as many posts as you do. I currently subscribe to ~25 feeds, but most post once a week or less. A few, infoQ, No Fluff Just Stuff, Ajaxian post at most a few a day. I don't subscribe to /. for example. I find the number of posts I get to be very manageable.
I haven't used many blog readers, but I pretty much find google reader to be better than bloglines in all ways.
I guess I should check out the iGoogle gadget.
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